Today I wanted to shoot flintlock. And I have not shot the Trade Rifles in a long time. I could not decide which one I wanted to shoot, the .50 or the .54.. so I took them both out.



I started out at 25 yards because I wanted to see how this 50 caliber would shoot the .504 diameter 450 grain UC Short mag conical bullets I casted. First off, they loaded like a dream. Just a nice slip fit. I only put 60 grains of powder under them with no wad. And they shot to the left of the bull in a not too impressive group. Perhaps more powder, a wad, who knows.. it was a first attempt.

Since I know the rifle shoots roundball real well with 70 grains of powder.. I took some home cast roundball and pillow tick. I used dishwater as the patch lube and shot them at the bulls eye.. they did pretty good. I did actually shoot one round at 50 yards, the one under the red square. But decided I wanted to shoot bigger things still.

So I got out the .54 Trade Rifle flintlock. I had some Semisane .535 ball left and wanted to try them at 50 yards. I loaded 90 grains of powder which this .54 seems to like.



I shot three and noticed they were a little high off the bull so I adjusted my POA and shot three more... Now that pleased me. I had to pull the target to find #6 but on the back of the cardboard #4 showed a secondary cut to the hole. The front showed a little of that, but either that or I missed the target completely with the last shot.

I was going to shoot more, but of course company had to show up. So I called it a day. But it was fun to get the flintlocks out.

That dishwater lube, before you laugh... try it. You can swab with it too. These were some ball that Semisane made me. And they sure shoot good!!!

Dave: I always like the trade rifle in 54 cal. Flinter too bad I passed on one a few years back at walmart in PA. I think it was about 259.00 .
I was out to day with the T/C hawkens slowly working up on the charges I am at 80 Gr. 3F goex the shoulder is coming back but still stiff in the Morning.I did some testing to day with the RB in the 50cal. flinter lately my groups will open at 50 yards to 4" shooting peep sights.I did something to day a little different I loaded the 80 grains over a spit patch Man Bingo 5 shots all stayed in a tight group .

great shooting

Its funny but I got one the dishwater kick as a lube by accident. My moosemilk is in an identical bug spritz bottle and I had dishwater to test as a cleaner. Well I got the bottles mixed up and was lubing with dishwater and swabbing with moosemilk. (which works pretty good too). So I have been testing a lot of rifles with dishwater. I have shot spit patches in the past and they did fine.

Are those trade rifles a 1 in 48 twist? The 50 caliber seems to be better with the balls. That second group with your 54 looks nice!

Yes the twist is 1-48 in them. They actually shoot sabots pretty good too. But in all fairness, the 50 was shot at 25 yards and the 54 at 50 yards. And that target to me looks real small at 50 yards. In fact I used the red square as my aim point at 50 yards.